Even beautiful days harbor dirt in the air

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

It was such a beautiful day that I decided to begin writing our

column on my laptop while enjoying the great outdoors. The Inland

Empire is sweltering with triple-digit temperatures, but it’s balmy

and pleasant here in Huntington Beach. It’s another perfect day in

paradise. Or is it?

Over breakfast, Vic and I had discussed a number of potential

topics for our column, including air pollution. Vic had a meeting to

attend, so he left it to me to pick a direction and begin writing.

He’ll weigh in later with facts and revisions.

In preparation for thinking about the column, I cleaned off the

patio furniture. I love being a writer because it gives me a lot of

time to sit and think. I call it work. What I found myself thinking

today was that the patio furniture sure had gotten dirty since the

last time I cleaned it, which wasn’t all that long ago.

Have you ever wondered what that black gunk is that settles over

your outdoor furniture and collects on the inside of open windows in

the summer? That nasty black grit contains PM10, the fine particulate

matter 10 microns or smaller that we write about occasionally. Just

to put this size in perspective, 10 microns is the size of a dust

mite and about a third the size of a grain of pollen.

PM10 is an air pollutant that is often in the news as the cause of

numerous ills. These tiny soot particles are produced by diesel

engines like those found on trucks and buses and those that run many

of the oil well pumps here in town. They’re produced when people burn

wood or smoke tobacco. Fine particulate matter is also produced by

construction projects and by wind blowing across bare fields. The

construction of the Youth Sports Complex in Central Park is kicking

up plenty of dust -- just ask the people who live downwind.

There’s another source of PM10. Tires get thinner and thinner

until we have to replace them. Some of that rubber goes into the air

as fine particles. Then it settles to the ground or on our decks and

patio furniture as black gunk.

Invariably and unavoidably, we inhale some of this fine

particulate matter. The finer the particles, the farther they go into

the lungs, and the more likely they are to stay there and damage our

lungs. The harder and longer people work and play outdoors, the more

particles they breathe in. That’s why children are particularly

susceptible. They spend more time exerting themselves outdoors than

most adults.

As I relax outdoors on my chaise lounge, typing this on my laptop,

I’m thinking how nice my life is. This sure beats working in a

cubicle. But I’m concerned about the black grit in the air around me.

That’s why Vic and I were pleased to note that the California Air

Resources Board in June passed the world’s strictest air-quality

standards regulating these microscopic pollutants.

The new standards target the tiny dust and soot particles that

lodge in airways and damage hearts and lungs. The board expects that

a reduction in these small particles will prevent about 6,500 deaths

and 340,000 asthma attacks a year in California and avoid 2.8 million

lost days at work. That’s pretty impressive.

Human activities put nearly two and a half tons of particulate

matter into the air every day in California. The new standards call

for a one-third reduction in the number of small airborne particles.

Oh, good. Our patio furniture will need to be cleaned slightly less

often. More importantly, maybe we’ll be able to breathe better too.

It’s difficult for an individual to fight particulate pollution

outdoors. Sure, we can avoid buying diesel cars, drive less, not use

leaf-blowers or other dust-raising equipment, and limit our use of

wood-burning fireplaces, especially on days with poor air quality,

but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the amount produced by

farms, construction projects and big diesel engines.

But we can do something about particulate pollution inside our

homes. Doctors recommend the use of HEPA filters to reduce the amount

of fine particulates in homes of sensitive people, such as the

elderly, and those with allergies, asthma or other upper respiratory

problems. HEPA, or High Efficiency Particle Air, is a technology

originally developed by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission during

World War II to trap dust particles that might harbor radioactive

material.

The main use of HEPA filters in the home is to filter dust, dust

mites and pollen from the air. HEPA filters remove 99.97% of airborne

particles as small as 0.3 microns. This includes those nasty PM10

particles. You can buy HEPA-filtered air purifiers, vacuum cleaners

and filters for your forced air furnace at many stores in town. We

have all three. But the best thing we can do about the air outdoors

is encourage environmental regulations that help clean it up.

Well, I’ve had enough ultraviolet rays for one day. UV rays cause

skin cancer, you know. As pleasant as it seems outdoors, I’d better

head inside and get out of this cancer-causing sunshine and

lung-damaging air. We look forward to a future with cleaner outdoor

air.

* VIC LEIPZIG PhD and LOU MURRAY PhD are Huntington Beach

residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at

[email protected].